How do you create a "new document" keyboard shortcut?

First, open gconf-editor and set /desktop/gnome/interface/can_change_accels to true. This lets you edit menu shortcuts.

Second, open a terminal and type: killall nautilus && UBUNTU_MENUPROXY= nautilus This will relaunch Nautilus with the standard (non-Unity) menu bar, because the Unity menu bar doesn't support this feature. (It will respect your changed shortcuts, but it won't let you change them.)

Now, open the file menu, hover the mouse over Create Document > Empty File and press your desired shortcut. Ctrl-Alt-N seems like a decent choice, or you can reassign Ctrl-N. You should see the accelerator hint change in the menu.

Finally, relaunch Nautilus without the UBUNTU_MENUPROXY variable to get your Unity menus back with the new shortcut.

Edit: The solution for newer versions is nearly the same , except you need to use dconf-editor instead of gconf-editor. You can install the dconf-tools package to get dconf-editor.

Also, the killall nautilus ... command did not appear to be necessary.

1. Run dconf-editor.
2. Go to org/gnome/desktop/interface.
3. Check the box for can-change-accels.
4. Open Nautilus and highlight the menu item whose key binding you want to change, either with your mouse or via the keyboard, and press the key(s) you want to use as the shortcut.
5. Don't forget to uncheck can-change-accels in dconf-editor after you're done.